Styling
The midlife 'facelift' was so vanishingly minor that you could put pictures of the earlier Jazz models alongside the newer one, and you'd still be none the wiser as to what had been altered. For the record, it's that honeycomb grille up front, as well as discreetly reprofiled bumpers and some subtly polished light clusters, plus smoked-grey metallic 16-inch alloys for this Crosstar, but the overall shape of the supermini remains pleasing. It's easy to be sniffy about the B-segment Honda and its supposed preferred clientele, but with the lifestyle-y addenda of the Crosstar beefing it up, we're not about to call the still-inherently-monobox Jazz hideous. Even if we do think a numberplate that vaguely looks like 'RACE' is perhaps stretching the boundaries of plausibility somewhat.
Interior
Not much to report in here, as the Honda Jazz Crosstar looks much the same inside as it did back at launch, save for some sundry trim revisions. This, on the one hand, can invite the accusation that the Japanese car's cabin is badly dated, certainly in an era of vast, dash-dominating touchscreens. And while both the Honda's nine-inch infotainment and seven-inch TFT instrument cluster are undeniably showing their age, the fact the little Honda has excellent ergonomics due to the profusion of buttons, stalks and switches within its cabin is nothing short of delightful.
Practicality
Few cars in this sector are going to match the Honda Jazz for practicality. Its MPV-mimicking exterior form might not be sexy, but it sure is versatile, so there's plenty of leg- and headroom in the rear of the car for even taller passengers. Sure, a 304-litre boot with all seats in use isn't ripping up this sector on pure volume terms, but then no other car has a feature like Honda's Magic Seats, which allow the squabs of the second-row bench to be tipped up to the seatbacks, freeing up the footwells for the transportation of lofty and/or bulky items. Oh, and we also like the conceit of throwing a couple of cupholders onto the wings of the main fascia, so they're in easier reach for a right-handed driver, while the panoramic view out of the windscreen (abetted by quarter-lights in the side doors) is a genuine boon for safe, outward visibility.
Performance
The Jazz, Crosstar or otherwise, continues with the smaller i-MMD hybrid drivetrain, which is centred on a 1.5-litre engine. This was given a modest bump in outputs during the updates, so instead of 109hp, the Honda now delivers a fulsome 122hp. System torque trims a searing 0.2 seconds from the Crosstar's 0-62mph time, so it's capable of a 9.7-second sprint.
The thing is, when we tried this engine six years ago, we thought it was reasonably quiet and refined, and a significant improvement over the
mooing horror of a CVT-equipped Mk3 Jazz. But the game has moved on and, sadly, the Honda hasn't. This 1.5 feels coarse and sounds rowdy in an increasingly electrified age, and while the e-CVT is not a tragically bad transmission, it's nevertheless miles off the responsiveness of a good double-clutcher or a single-speed reduction gear.
Yet what it lacks in sophistication, the i-MMD more than makes up for in terms of real-world efficiency. We did a mammoth week in RA25 CCE, racking up just shy of 794 miles at 45mph across 17.5 hours of driving - lots of high-speed motorway work dragging the average pace up. Therefore, an overall economy figure of 55.1mpg is superb, although driving the Jazz more gently on local country roads, it could hit indicated, and phenomenal, figures of 69-71mpg on a regular basis.
Ride & Handling
You're going to laugh, but the handling of the Honda Jazz Mk4 is not bad at all. The steering is surprisingly positive and accurate, and while there is of course plenty of body movement atop a softly sprung suspension set-up, you can sort of scurry the Crosstar along twisting, enjoyable roads at a decent old lick.
Perhaps the bigger issue is ride comfort and refinement, given the car's primary purpose. By no means awful in these disciplines, the Jazz Crosstar nevertheless has a little more road roar flooding its cabin at higher speeds than we'd strictly like, while the way it attempts to smother off lumps and bumps in the road is by no means flawless. Still, if you're just pottering to the shops in it once or twice a week, the Honda should suit you fine.
Value
Even when it launched, the fourth-gen Jazz was not a bargain - and a windscreen sticker of almost £32,000 for our test Crosstar in Advance spec with a smattering of options is breathtaking for all the wrong reasons. We could cite the decent amount of standard kit you get as some form of defence, but in a world where the 274-mile
Skoda Epiq EV starts from £27,700, or in a reality where the stellar
Renault 5 E-Tech exists, then the Honda Jazz Crosstar simply appears to be grotesquely overpriced.
Verdict
Perhaps the Jazz Crosstar suffered as we drove it immediately in the wake of two of Honda's far newer, much more appealing models: the glorious
Super-N shows just how much character the Japanese giant can imbue into a small, electrified shopping trolley on wheels, while the baffling but beguiling
Prelude is the best resurrection since some bloke called Jesus woke up in his own tomb one Sunday morning.
Undoubtedly, the Jazz has its merits, such as its practicality, its marvellous economy, and its spectacular simplicity-of-use. But its coarse drivetrain, venerable interior design and stupidly inflated pricetag all drop it several notches down the supermini ladder. Here's hoping Honda has an all-electric replacement in the pipeline, which takes everything that makes the Super-N so magical and just enlarges it a fraction for the crowd who need a bigger, longer-range electric hatchback.
